Heroes of the Storm, Patch Highlights 19/08/15

I’ve been a bit slack since release and haven’t done the patch highlights (I blame playing too much) but with Blizzard confirming they plan on releasing a new hero every four to six weeks I’m getting back to it.

Today Blizzard released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm, this patch has a lot of new features added to the game and three are major updates so I’ve done their own highlight below before the normal patch highlights.

Game Server Selection Now Available:

One of the biggest changes that will affect ANZ players is the addition of game server selection, this option can be found in the Language and Region options menu. This allows players to specify which game server (not to be mistaken for login server) they play on.

Normally the client will select the best server and you will be playing on AU1, however if you’ve noticed ping issues this is a good chance to select AU1 so that you can tell the client this is your prefered server.

Since Alpha Heroes has had the issue with bundles that if you purchase a bundle which contains something you already owned you are basically double buying the hero. With today’s patch Blizzard have introduced Dynamic Bundles, these bundles are any bundle which contains three or more items and will change in price depending on what you already own in the bundle.

Blizzard have also confirmed that starting in the next couple of days players will start receiving an email from Blizzard about reimbursing gold to players who have in the past ‘double bought’ heroes from buying a bundle that they already owned part of it.

While this patch did include the new Diablo based map Infernal Shrines Blizzard have decided not to release it until next week, in the mean time you can have a look at the map in this video preview.

With those out of the way let’s dive into the normal patch highlights.

Patch Highlights:

Kharazim the Monk from Diablo III has entered the Nexus! Kharazim is a new style of support hero that is up close and personal with the ability to chose a trait at level 1 to decide if you want more dps, more healing or more mana regeneration.

An HD version of Murky has been added.

The Demonic Tyrael skin has returned with massive updates to its look and skills.

The Blood Elf Tyrande skin has returned with all new Blood Elf style skills.

A new Prisoner Tychus skin has been added to the ingame store.

Players who reach level 70 in the new Diablo III season will be rewarded with Malthael’s Phantom in Heroes of the Storm.

New reporting categories have been added to the game including Abusive Chat, AFK/Non-Participation, and Intentional Feeding.

Ranked play has received significant changes and ranks have been reset (MMR remains intact), you will need to complete 20 placement matches before your new rank is decided.

Five player parties may now only play Team League when trying to play in a Ranked match.

Versus A.I now has a difficulty selection box in the bottom left however Elite A.I is still in the works.

Many new portraits have been added, these are rewarded for leveling several heroes from the same universe to 10.

The Webweavers on Tomb of the Spider queen now have 50% more HP and deal 50% more damage past the 15 minute mark in a game.

On the Battlefield of Eternity When Immortals swap locations for the first time, the Heaven Immortal will now always travel to right, and the Hell Immortal will always travel to the left.

There has also been a significant amount of skill changes in this patch, I recommend looking up your hero or favourite skills in the full patch notes below.

After visiting the top smith that the Burning Hells have to offer, Demonic Tyrael has strapped into an intimidating new set of armor, imbued El’Druin with corruption, sprouted two wicked pairs of horns, and donned a crown worthy of his title as the Lord of Pride.

Demonic Tyrael now also features updated Ability art, which much more closely matches his theme.

Blood Elf Tyrande has also returned to the Nexus, and now sports updated Ability art, which much more closely matches her theme.

War World Sgt. Hammer has received updated Ability art for Napalm Strike, which more closely matches her theme.

The Nexus Bundle will be removed from the Shop one week following patch day, but will remain purchasable as a Dynamic Bundle until that time.

Heroes

Kharazim has been added to the in-game Shop!

Mounts

New Mounts

The Treasure Goblin Mount has been added for a limited time, and is exclusively available for purchase using Gold.

Malthael’s Phantom has been added and will become available exclusively to Diablo III players who reach level 70 with a Season Character, starting with Diablo III Season 4.

Mount Removals

The Nazeebra Mount, which is exclusive to the Nexus Bundle, will be removed from the Shop one week following patch day. During that time, players will still be able to purchase the Nexus Bundle to obtain the Nazeebra Mount.

Damage, damage over time, and quick Healing effects are now much easier to distinguish on Health bars.

Game Server Selection

Players may now select which game server they’d like to play on by selecting it from the Preferred Game Server dropdown on the Language and Region options menu.

This setting will default to Best Match, but players may wish to change this if they notice connection issues when playing on a specific server.

Please note: As we continue to improve and expand our game sites, Best Match will provide the best play experience for most players. If you are not experiencing issues, it is highly recommend that you leave this set to Best Match.

If players in a party have conflicting server preferences, the server that is most commonly selected among the party’s members will be used.

Player Reporting

New Report Categories

Reporting Options have been reworked, and now include categories for Abusive Chat, AFK/Non-Participation, and Intentional Feeding.

Ranked Play

Hero and Team League are no longer separated in the out-of-game menus, and can now be found using the new Ranked page on the Play screen.

Placement Rank

All players’ Hero and Team League ranks have been reset with today’s update.

Please Note: Matchmaking ratings have not been reset.

A new placement system has been added

All players must now play 20 placement matches in order to receive an initial ranking for Hero League or Team League.

Five-player parties will now be automatically queued for Team League when attempting to find a Ranked match.

The ability to create a named team has been removed, while this feature undergoes additional review.

Players who have spent Gold to create named teams in the past will have that amount of Gold returned to them in the days to come.

Team League draft lobbies will still use the First Come First Served draft format.

Team League will still use a separate matchmaking rating (MMR) from Hero League.

However, because Team League parties do not have static rosters, Team League MMR will now functions much like it does for Hero League. This means that each player’s Team League MMR is based on their own individual performance in Team League matches.

DESIGN & GAMEPLAY

Ability Power Gains

Developer Comments: This change was aimed at removing odd gameplay where a Nazeebo player may actually want to sacrifice his or her Gargantuan for a more powerful one. This occurred if players kept a summon alive for a very long time and gained Ability Power via Talents, like Gathering Power, as this increase in Ability Power was not passed onto the Summon. Short term summons or persistent effects will still take a snapshot of your current Ability Power at the time they are cast, and apply the bonus for the complete duration of the effect.

To clarify the rules for temporary Ability Power gains, the following rules have been added:

For permanent or very long duration pets or persistent effects, their damage and maximum Health will now update dynamically when Ability Power is modified. This includes:

Abathur’s Monstrosity

Nazeebo’s Gargantuan (with the Humongoid Talent)

For short duration pets or persistent effects, their damage and maximum Health should snapshot based upon the Ability Power of the character when they are cast. This includes:

Jaina’s Water Elemental

Sgt. Hammer’s Blunt Force Gun

Tychus’ Drakken Laser Drill

Bonus Effects from Kills

Developer Comments: This change will not have a major impact on today’s gameplay and was mostly done for consistency on how these type of talents worked. In the future, it may allow us to develop Battlegrounds with many small minions (think Haunted Mines) and not have to worry about special casing Seasoned Marksman so it doesn’t get out of control.

Talents and Abilities that gain bonus effects from kills will now only trigger from Minions and Mercenaries, and will no longer gain benefit from killing neutral Mercenaries, map event creatures, summoned units, etc.

BATTLEGROUNDS

Battlefield of Eternity

When Immortals that are battling at the center of the Battleground swap locations for the first time, the Heaven Immortal will now always travel to right, and the Hell Immortal will always travel to the left.

Tomb of the Spider Queen

Developer Comments: A small number of Tomb games tend to run significantly longer than intended, so we altered the scaling of the Spider mechanic to prevent drawn out stalemates in the late game. Our hope is to see shorter matches overall.

Increased the damage and Health scaling of Webweavers and their minions by 50% past the 15 minute mark.

TALENTS

Bolt of the Storm

Developer Comments: We love this talent and think it can create a lot of really interesting moments, but the cooldown was just too short. At 70 seconds we think this talent is still a great level 20 pick, but now players will have to be more strategic with how they use it. Forcing someone to use their Bolt to avoid a gank can now be a meaningful moment with this increased cooldown. We hope this also entices players towards choosing their Heroic upgrades instead of Bolt when the situation calls for it.

Cooldown increased from 40 to 70 seconds

Cleanse

Developer Comments: We didn’t like the gameplay of casting Cleanse preemptively on a target that is about to be CC’ed. For example, you see Butcher charging your Valla, and right before impact you use Cleanse on Valla, allowing her to immediately Vault away. The change also prevents healers from cleansing themselves preemptively, providing a guaranteed target if the opposing team has only secured one Cleanse. As a side note, the original reason the Unstoppable functionality was available in the first place, was to help alleviate some persistent CC effects like Putrid Bile. We didn’t want you to cleanse a Putrid Bile only to have the slow immediately reapply.

No longer makes the target Unstoppable for 1 second

Now adds Relentless to the target for 2 seconds (50% shorter CC duration)

Focused Attacks

Developer Comments: This could be viewed as a buff or nerf depending on how players perceive it. You can still reduce the cooldown by attacking Minions, but won’t accidently waste a burst of damage on an unintended target. This talent will no longer be as effective at sieging, but it should be significantly better at harassing in lane. We will continue to monitor the talent, and tune as necessary.

The increased damage effect will now only trigger when hitting Heroes

Gathering Power

Developer Comments: Gathering Power was simply too good and was considered, by many, a mandatory pick on certain characters, which often lead to snowballing. We liked the ‘quest’ aspect of this talent, but it was far too easy to reach the cap and the quest didn’t feel meaningful to complete. Now, choosing this talent should no longer be mandatory, and the quest is much longer. Player’s will keep half of their stacks upon dying, which will help act as a ‘check point’.

The 5% starting Ability Power has been removed

Percentage gain from killing a Hero reduced from 2% to 1%

Instead of losing all stacks on death, players will now only lose half their stacks (rounding up)

Imposing Presence

Developer Comments: Statistically, it was almost never wrong to choose Imposing Presence. With this nerf, it’s still a great counter in the right situation, and as a result, we’re hoping we’ll see more play from our Basic Attack assassins.

Attack Speed slow reduced from 50% to 40%

The Attack Speed slow will now be removed when attacking a target that has not learned the Imposing Presence Talent

Mercenary Lord

Developer Comments: We’ve combined the talent Superiority into Mercenary Lord, and removed the damage reduction from structures to prevent degenerative backdoor strategies. The combination of the damage reduction vs. Mercenaries and the ability to empower these Mercenaries felt like a logical pairing. We hope incorporating the two talents into one will make this level 4 choice an enticing one, as the two talents separated had a low pick rate.

The functionality of the Superiority Talent has been rolled into Mercenary Lord, which is now available to the following Heroes at Level 4:

New combined functionality reads: Non-Boss Mercenaries near your Hero deal 50% more damage. Reduces damage taken from Minions and Mercenaries by 50%.

Seasoned Marksman

Developer Comments: Overall, we like the way Seasoned Marksman is playing but wanted to tune up its effectiveness to reward those able to secure a healthy number of takedowns, while simultaneously tuning the talent up due to prior changes. Ideally, this will become a great talent pick when facing The Lost Vikings or Murky players.

Stacks earned by killing enemy Heroes increased from 2 to 3

Only Minions, captured enemy Mercenaries, and Heroes will grant stacks upon death

Superiority

This Talent has been removed, and its functionality has been rolled into the revamped Mercenary Lord Talent

HEROES

ASSASSIN

FALSTAD

Developer Comments: Mighty Gust can be a great disengagement tool, but it is often outshined by the pure power of Hinterland Blast. We feel we can bring this Heroic into play more often with some simple tuning changes. Internally, it’s been much more powerful and can even be used as a counter to a hard engagement or aggressive dive teams.

JAINA

Developer Comments: The Jaina changes are a result of her being too powerful right now, and we have a secondary goal of increasing the play of Ring of Frost. By reducing the impact of summoning a Water Elemental, Jaina loses some of her burst potential unless she chooses Ring of Frost. Water Elemental is now more focused on producing sustained damage.

Ring of Frost (R)

Cooldown decreased from 100 to 80 seconds

Water Elemental (R)

No longer deals damage or Chills at the Water Elemental’s spawn location

KAEL’THAS

Developer Comments: Prior to these changes, Kael’Thas had a high win rate, but his win rate wasn’t alarming. Instead, we’re focusing on Kael’thas’ current gameplay, as it feels very set in stone and we’d like players to have the option to be creative. We’re smoothing out his power curve and making Pyroblast a more enticing choice.

Spell Shield (Talent) removed

Arcane Barrier (Talent)

Shield duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds

Verdant Spheres (Trait) (D)

Sunfire Enchantment (Talent)

Damage increased from 78 (+16 per level) to 85 (+18 per level)

Flamestrike (Q)

Damage increased from 74 (+20 per level) to 80 (+22 per level)

Mana Tap (Talent)

Now restores 5% Mana per target killed, rather than a flat amount

Ignite (Talent) removed

New Talent (Level 16): Fury of the Sunwell

Casting Flamestrike will cause a second Flamestrike to be cast 1 second after the first explodes

Living Bomb (W)

Damage over time increased from 60 (+18 per level) to 60 (+22 per level)

Explosion damage increased from 30 (+9 per level) to 30 (+11 per level)

KERRIGAN

Developer Comments: These changes are intended as a slight buff overall, and to provide Kerrigan with more options. Her level 1 range increase talent was almost always picked, so we made that baseline. Several new talents and mana alterations should allow Kerrigan players to try out some Ravage and Trait based builds.

RAYNOR

Developer Comments: Overall Raynor’s win rate is low and using Inspire can feel clunky as it resets your Basic Attack period. These changes should help Raynor feel more responsive to play, while also making him a bit more powerful. We also did a pass at shuffling around and tuning up some of his least picked talents.

Basic Attack damage increased from 35 to 40

Mercenary Lord (Talent) removed

Puttin’ on a Clinic (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7

Relentless Leader (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13

A Card to Play (Talent)

Cooldown reduction per Hero killed increased from 10 to 15 seconds

Penetrating Round (Q)

Cluster Round (Talent)

Damage bonus per target hit increased from 10% to 20%, up to a maximum of 100%

Bullseye (Talent)

Bonus damage removed

Stun duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds

Inspire (W)

No longer places Raynor’s Basic Attack on cooldown

Adrenaline Rush (E)

Cooldown reduced from 45 to 40 seconds

Activated Rush (Talent) removed

Fight or Flight (Talent)

Now also allows manual activation of Adrenaline Rush

No longer removes movement impairing effects, and instead reduces damage taken by 25% for 4 seconds after activating Adrenaline Rush

SPECIALIST

ABATHUR

Developer Comments: We’ve tuned up some of his weaker talent picks to make them more viable. We really like the level 20 Hivemind talent, but it can feel clunky to use as when allies move out of range, you have to decide whether to cancel and recast it, or stay focused on only a single target. With these changes, Hivemind will be much more fluid to play with and consistent in its effectiveness.

Volatile Mutation (Talent)

Damage increased from 36 (+7 per level) to 50 (+10 per level)

Damage radius increased by 20%

Locust Strain (Trait)

Survival Instincts (Talent)

Locust Health bonus increased from 30% to 50%

Symbiote (Q)

Carapace (E)

Regenerative Microbes (Talent)

Healing per second increased from 7 (+2 per level) to 9 (+3 per level)

Hivemind (Talent)

Now searches for a new Hivemind target every second, rather than only on the first cast

AZMODAN

Developer Comments: Right now, Azmodan has one competitive build at high levels of play where he stacks Globe of Annihilation (Q) talents. We think this build is a ton of fun, so we didn’t want to negatively impact this build. Instead, we wanted to give Azmodan some other build options. Right now, it’s almost always a mistake to summon one of his Demons and waste your mana. With the new tuning, and the talent changes, the Demons become a legitimate option to use. The Demons start with much more damage than previously, but scale close to what they use to be at higher levels. For players who still plan to go the (Q) build, it’s mostly the same, but we’ve offered a few additional talent choices to make options that best fit your play style. Finally, we are removing some of the Support nature of Healing Ward and Storm Shield from Azmodan. It makes more sense for him to be a greedy character, not someone who can become a hybrid support in the right situation.

Healing Ward (Talent) removed

Superiority (Talent) removed

First Aid (Talent) removed

Storm Shield (Talent) removed

Mercenary Lord (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 4

New Talent (Level 4): Sin’s Grasp

Activate to deal 115 (+19 per level) damage over 6 seconds to the target enemy Hero; can be cast while channeling All Shall Burn

NAZEEBO

Developer Comments: We looked at tuning up talents that wouldn’t impact his core Spider build. We’ve reverted some of the Ravenous Spirit nerfs as we saw a large shift from Ravenous to Gargantuan and wanted to see a better mix of the two.

SGT. HAMMER

Developer Comments: Hammer is one of our lowest win rate characters so we looked at some easy buffs we could make. We feel like she has a great playstyle and wanted to highlight her fantasy more. The increased health will let you be a bit more aggressive and the increased damage will better reinforce her long range, high damage capabilities. Finally, her Siege Mode can be used much more frequently and with less emphasis on securing the perfect location. It’s okay now to Siege up, get a couple shots in, and then get out of danger.

SYLVANAS

SUPPORT

BRIGHTWING

Developer Comments: We like a lot of what the rework did for Brightwing, but overall her healing output went down more than intended. This change will give her back a big portion of the lost healing and should increase her total healing output (tab screen wise) by about 15-20%.

MALFURION

Developer Comments: Player feedback brought to our attention that this particular level 4 talent on Malfurion was an obvious trap at 20%. While we don’t want to give Malfurion a solid burst healing option, we agreed and have tuned this talent up to 50%. At 50%, and in a vacuum, this talent may still be undertuned, but it eventually adds up to a decent additional amount of healing. Over a sustained period of time, this additional 50% outpaces Protective Shield, for example.

REHGAR

Developer Comments: Bloodlust is rarely picked right now, but we feel like both Heroics are extremely powerful. Without changing anything massive, we’re simply reducing the CD of Bloodlust so it can be used more frequently. We believe if Basic Attack based heroes become more prevalent in the Meta, this Heroic could become dominant, so we’ll be taking a cautious approach.

SONYA

Developer Comments: Overall, we’re looking to tune Sonya up slightly. With the health increases, she’ll be a bit more tanky. Previously, Whirlwind could be very frustrating to lane against if you didn’t have a stun. With the shift of less healing from minions and more from heroes, this will make Sonya less of a lane bully and more of an effective skirmisher.

Health increased from 930 (+210 per level) to 950 (+220 per level)

Fury (Trait)

Shot of Fury (Talent)

No longer dismounts Sonya on activation

Whirlwind (E)

Healing reduced from 25% to 20% of damage dealt

Healing for damage dealt to Heroes has increased from double to triple

TYRAEL

Developer Comments: Overall, our goal was to make Sanctification a viable Heroic for players. We increased its effectiveness and fixed a few bugs to make the ability more consistent. With the changes, Sanctification can become extremely powerful at countering Wombos or Hard Engage teams, making it an enticing choice over Judgement in certain situations.

El’Druin’s Might (Q)

After throwing El’Druin, a timer bar will now display on screen to indicate how much time remains before El’Druin’s Might expires

New Talent (Level 1): Horadric Reforging

Reduces the cooldown for El’Druin’s Might by 3 seconds if it hits an enemy

Sanctification (R)

No longer requires Tyrael to channel the Ability. All Heroes, including Tyrael, will be invulnerable while within Sanctification’s area of effect

Now has a 0.5 second cast time

Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds

Area of effect radius reduced by approximately 53%

Judgment (R)

Casting time increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds

Judgment’s target is now briefly revealed upon casting

New art has been added that will better notify the target of an incoming Judgment

The distance that an enemy targeted by Judgment must travel beyond the Ability’s maximum cast range in order to interrupt it has been increased by 66%

BUG FIXES

The Wonder Billie Mount can now be properly selected for use in Hero League and Custom Games.

Fixed a rare issue that could sometimes cause matchmade games to start with fewer than 10 players.

Fixed an issue that could cause French AZERTY and German QWERTZ keyboards to revert to using QWERTY keyboard hotkeys.

Fixed an issue that could cause a noticeable gamma change for some Mac users.

Art

The visual effects preceding Furnace Blast’s explosion will now remain visible while The Butcher is affected by Brightwing’s Polymorph.

Battlegrounds

Heroes that are near a Dragon Knight when it is killed will no longer exhibit unexpected movement behavior.

Battlefield of Eternity Minions affected by Sylvanas’ Possession will now properly grant vision to the controlling team.

Captured Bruiser Mercenary Camps on Battlefield of Eternity will now properly display their respawn timers when mousing over them on the minimap.

Fixed a rare issue that could cause Mercenary Camps to permanently vanish on Battlefield of Eternity.

Visual effects from Basic Attacks and Hero Abilities against an Immortal are no longer visible through the fog of war.

Fixed an issue in which certain movement-based Abilities, such as Kerrigan’s Ravage or Chen’s Flying Kick, could not target the Doubloon Chests on Blackheart’s Bay, or Plant Terror Overgrowths on Garden of Terror.

Enemy Heroes within a Dragon Knight or Garden Terror will no longer become unresponsive if that vehicle is killed by Sylvanas’ Unstable Poison.

Heroes and Talents

Abathur’s Evolve Monstrosity cooldown will no longer begin counting down when Abathur is killed while a Monstrosity remains alive.

Fixed an issue that could allow Abathur to become permanently invulnerable under certain circumstances.

Abathur’s Stab and Spike Burst Abilities will now deal the proper amount of damage to Promoted Minions.

After learning the Evolution Complete Talent, Abathur’s Monstrosity will no longer retain some of the Minions Absorbed stacks earned by a previous Monstrosity.

Casting Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution on Tyrael just as Tyrael is killed will now properly place Ultimate Evolution on a reduced cooldown.

Anub’arak’s Web Wrap and Stitches’ Gorge will now work properly when used against Unstoppable targets, which is consistent with Zagara’s Devouring Maw.

Chen’s Flying Kick will now be properly canceled when cast on an enemy that is transitioning between levels on the Haunted Mines.

Illidan will no longer fly to the enemy Hall of Storms if the target of The Hunt is killed before the Ability completes.

After learning the Wintermute Talent, Jaina’s Water Elemental will now properly mirror her Blizzard casts.

Kerrigan’s Aggressive Defense Talent now correctly increases the Assimilation Shield amount gained from Basic Attacks and Abilities by 100% when paired with her Fury of the Swarm Talent.

Li Li’s Cloud Serpent will now attack at the proper speed whether Li Li is moving or standing still.

Malfurion’s Tranquility will no longer heal him for double the intended amount.

Nazeebo’s Gargantuan Stomp tooltip now properly reflects a 5 second Ability cooldown for the Ability.

Fixed an issue that could cause the Gargantuan Stomp button to persist on Nazeebo’s Ability Hotbar after his Gargantuan had been killed.

Fixed an issue in which Ability effects, such as Giant Killer, Focused Attack, and Zagara’s Envenomed Spines, could be applied while Blinded.

Fixed an issue that could prevent Abilities like Brightwing’s Soothing Mist or Malfurion’s Life Seed from auto-casting during Iceblock, or periods during which players are stunned or silenced.

Leoric’s Reanimation Talent will no longer allow him to benefit from enemy Regen Globes during Undying.

Fixed a bug that could allow Leoric’s Consume Vitality to heal him for more than the five target maximum during Undying.

Fixed a bug that could cause Leoric’s Consume Vitality to trigger multiple times after striking a single target.

Murky can no longer use Pufferfish to permanently reveal parts of the fog of war before the match starts.

Fixed an issue that could cause Stitches’ Hook to become visually stuck to an enemy Hero and fail to pull the target under certain circumstances.

The Butcher’s Savage Charge Talent will now properly apply its damage bonus when using Ruthless Onslaught on an enemy Hero that has less than 50% Health remaining.

Ruthless Onslaught will no longer cause The Butcher to continue searching for the target even after losing vision of that Hero.

Minions affected by Sylvanas’ Possession will no longer occasionally appear to attack one another.

Right-clicking Tassadar as he begins using Dimensional Shift will no longer cause the auto-attack reticule to appear while he is invisible.

Tyrael will no longer fly to the enemy Hall of Storms if his Judgment target is killed before the Ability completes.

Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Tyrael’s Judgment to fail to cast properly on the intended target.